Almost 40 per cent of all deaths that occurred in Malta in 2016 were "avoidable", the EU's statistics body revealed on Thursday. 

According to fresh data by Eurostat, 39.9 per cent of the deaths involving people aged 75 and younger that occurred in Malta could have been prevented.

While the data does not provide insights for each country under review, the Eurostat researchers considered preventable mortality as that which can be "mainly avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions"

The rate for Malta is the second-lowest when compared to other EU member states. 

On the other hand, Malta had the third-highest share of treatable deaths, at 30 per cent. A death is consider as having been potentially treatable when its cause can be "mainly avoided through timely and effective health care interventions, including secondary prevention and treatment". 

At EU level, about 1.7 million persons aged less than 75 died in 2016. Among them, around 1.2 million deaths could be considered as premature. Out of those, 741,000 preventable deaths could have been avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions, and 422, 000 treatable deaths through timely and effective health care interventions.

Heart attacks (174,000 deaths), cancers of the trachea, bronchus and lung (168,000 deaths) and strokes (87,000) accounted together for over a third (37 per cent) of total avoidable causes of death of people aged less than 75. Compared to 2011, avoidable deaths as a share of total deaths decreased by 1.7 percentage points, from 69.7 per cent to 68 per cent in 2016.